Sacrificial living

So, apart from all the lessons you learn having a newborn- patience, selflessness, trusting more in the Lord, etc...(these have all been good/hard lessons for me lately), God is also convicting Scotty and me of several other major things. One of these things is greed and sacrificial living. Scotty is a generous person by the grace of God. We are both cheap, but he is able to freely give a little (or a lot) more than I am. He has always challenged me in that way and now we are both being challenged to an even greater degree. There is a book we are reading together that I highly recommend by John Piper called "What Jesus Demands of the World". It starts off fairly basic, the things you need to know/do to be a Christian, but grows increasingly intense. The last chapter we read yesterday was about storing up for yourselves treasures in heaven and not on earth. This is an idea that has been rolling around in our heads for a while now and last night we chatted once again about how we are living. Do we give sacrifically- not just from the abundance we have been given? Christ calls us to live in a way where we give and it leaves us in a spot, maybe uncomfortable or scary, where we are completely dependent on Him to provide. We have been blessed with a beautiful home, 2 cars, all the "stuff" we could need (and then some) and land to build a home on. We are surrounded by people who have very little. We are also approaching a return to the States- where we feel we need to buy new clothes, new books, baby stuff, and everything else we haven't been able to get here in the last 2 years. But what of it do we NEED, really need. We are taking second and third looks at what our shopping list looks like, knowing that the stores and the ads and people and culture all tell us we must have "new" and "fashionable". But, is that treasure that is eternal? I'm not saying I'm not going to go shopping and buy some stuff- but how I long to do it with an eternal perspective and with my true treasure being found in Christ and not worldly goods- because that is really a temptation for me. And so we are praying for the mind of Christ and the desire to really give of ourselves, our time, our resources to further the kingdom. What a challenge this is!