Well, I've registered for classes and begun the long and expensive process of buying books. Unlike my Master's level work where a professor might require 3-4 books, in the Ph.D. program the books pile up quite high (my seminar for the Fall semester require the 3 books the M.Div. students need plus 8 more just for Ph.D. students - 11 total). Over the next 10 weeks I will be required to read about 3,500 pages (350 per week) and write a 30 page paper on both the reading and the research. So far, I've purchased about half the books I need for the seminar and for Hebrew. Already the total has exceeded $250 for books and will approach $400 by the time it is all said and done. Add that to the tuition bill, parking permit, various campus fees and charges, and the cost becomes substantial. I know. I wrote the check for it all today.
Was it hard to write the check? Not really. No one wants to give away thousands of dollars but that's not how I have been looking at it. The bible says, "Give and it will be given to you, pressed down, shaken together all running over into your lap. For the measure you give is the measure you get back." Jesus also believed that "where you treasure is there will your heart be also." So, I wrote the check willingly. Believing that this is merely an investment in the future; in what God is doing in me and, eventually, through me.
On what do you spend the most amount of your money? Is it your mortgage? Well, what are you doing in your home that is an investment in your ministry today and in the future? Is it your car? How are you using your vehicle to reach out to others with the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Is it a vacation home? Appliances? Tuition for your kids schooling? Groceries? Whatever it is, remember this. You get what you pay for! Everyone invests their money in something. What is it that you are investing your treasure in? That is your priority in life. Does it really match up well with who you say you are?
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