God's Unbelievable Faithfulness

There is some latency in a sales job.  It was about halfway through summer, or later, that I actually started getting real money from the job.  Now as any NSA student will tell you, NSA is expensive.  This year, each payment is $1870.  Now several weeks ago I made the first part of the first payment to NSA.  Unfortunately it was fairly small, due to me having to make the deposit first and paying for rent back in Moscow.  So I was only able to pay about $400.  I was however a little delinquent on the account so I knew NSA would charge me some money.

Last week I got a little information packet from NSA that included a summary of my payment.  I looked at how much I owed on the first payment and I was distressed to see it was around $1700.  I chalked it up to delinquent charges and, not having much time to give it thought, put the paper aside.  I resolved to call NSA and ask about it but didn't get around to it for some time.

The other day I was listening to a sermon by Mark Driscoll concerning money.  At one point he touched briefly upon tithing and told an inspiring story of his younger days when he was in financial straits.  He told his wife they should cut the tithe; she adamantly refused.  So they continued tithing, despite the fact it would cause them to go into debt.  However, on two different occasions, they received $100 from someone; they were simply being told, "God told me to give this to you."

This convicted me to tithe as soon as I possibly could (I'd been building a tithe up for several months and it was up past $300) even though it would mean I delay paying for NSA even longer.  So I called my dad up, asking him if I could take $300 out of my college fund to pay the tithe.  This depressed me, as one of my big goals this summer was to become essentially financially independent.  It looks like this should happen next summer, though.  But I digress.  At this point I was fully committed to paying the tithe, even though it would set me back a bit.

So tonight I realized I should go through the information packet and fill it out and send it to NSA.  I happened to look again at the amount due on the first payment.  It read $1311.

This took me aback.  But I quickly thanked God for it.  I essentially was given $400 out of nowhere.

Now I'm not saying this to advocate a karma-like approach to God.  Every time you read your Bible, candy will not suddenly appear under your pillow.  If you owe a back-tithe and you pay it God will not suddenly give you $400.  Did I get this $400 simply because I misread the amount the first time?  Of course.  This was no miracle, but it was a gift.  God is faithful, and God provides.  Praise Him. =)

College Life

So this fall marks the beginning of my matriculation at New Saint Andrews' college in Moscow, Idaho.  The desire to attend started around summer '07 and God has been very gracious to provide me with a way to pay for it.  I landed a lucrative sales job over in Spokane and I should be able to pay most if not all of tuition by around September.  Yes, door to door sales.  It sounds boring but you'd be surprised at the kind of people you run into at a job like this.  Stories?  Oh.  I have stories.

For those of you who don't know I attended University of Idaho for two years, majoring in Mathematics and Engineering.  I attend Christ Church, however, and after rooming with some NSA students and having almost constant contact with these students I decided an education at NSA is more worth the time and money than one I'd be getting at UI.  So here I am.  Hope to see you all around (assuming anyone I know is actually reading this blog yet =p).

My New Blag

So after a few people expressed interest in having me revive my short-lived blog, or blags as I like to call them (and if anyone gets that reference you get like a bajillion brownie points from me redeemable at any time), I decided that I would. So here's BlogSpot, on which I will post my thoughts and musings on everything from events in my daily life to theology that no one cares about.  Mostly this is a chance for me to show everyone how brilliantly genius I am.

Getting this going might take a few weeks though, so bear with me.