New York & Company Deal - Today ONLY!

Today only you can get on New York & Companys facebook and click "like us" and you will receive $50 off a purchase of $100 or more. Don't miss this opportunity.
If for some reason you have trouble doing this on facebook, leave me a comment on this post and I will send you the link. Also, if you are like me and don't have a facebook - I used my friends account and it still worked. Good luck!

-A

Livingsocial Deal of the Day!

If you haven't already heard, Livingsocial.com is having a great deal today! You can get a $20 Amazon gift card for only $10. Plus, if you send the link to 3 friends and they buy it, you can get yours for FREE! Click here for the link. Enjoy

Surprised By Grace

Last week I finished Tullian Tchividjian's newest book, Surprised By Grace: God's Relentless Pursuit Of Rebels. I thought it would help me to understand the book better if I attempted to put some of my thoughts into a coherent whole :)

The entire book revolves around the Old Testament prophet Jonah. Though most of us are familiar with Jonah's being swallowed by the fish, I actually thought the less known chapters in his story were the most compelling. I think most of us know about Jonah: He was a prophet that ran from God and was swallowed by a fish, only to be coughed up, change his mind about God's proposed mission, and preach to the Ninevites. One of my favorite things about Tchividjian's book is that he doesn't seem to focus on Jonah becoming fish bait, but actually helps us see as complete a picture of Jonah as possible - thankfully without "reading between the lines" and minimizing the overall point of the prophet's story.

Tchividjian is unapologetically Reformed in his theology and this drives what he sees as the most important aspect of Jonah's experience: God is pursuing us. He thoughtfully balances God's pursuit of us with God's discipline of us. He is also careful to remind us that because God gave Jonah a second chance after his rejection of God's call to preach in Nineveh, this does not guarantee us a second chance when we reject God's call. As I read this, I couldn't help but think of R.C. Sproul's The Holiness of God where the author states that God's grace is the ultimate explanation for our very existence. Each moment after each sin is proof that God extends his grace to us, despite each sin being a violation of God's perfect law.

If this is true, do you think your idea of God's grace is big enough?

Josh

Check It Out!

Yesterday was my first CVS shopping trip of 2011. I know in my last post I said this year my goal was to only buy things that were on sale and that I had a coupon for. Well after thinking about it I can't fully stick to that commitment because a lot of times they have really good sales on Coke products and Coke hardly ever has coupons. Plus my husband drinks far too many cokes not to get them on sale. Other than that, I think I can manage to stick my guns this year.

Yesterday I had a pretty good trip - here are my purchases:

Purchase #1

Retail value of products: $31.03

Total out of pocket: $24.16

Amount saved: $6.87
Extra bucks received: $10.00 (free money)

Purchase #2

Retail value of products: $23.82

Total out of pocket: $-0-

Amount saved: $23.82 (%100)

Because of coupons the total actually came to $14.50 but because of all the extra bucks I received from purchase #1 and the extra bucks I had been saving I got it all for FREE!

This week CVS is having pretty great deals. You should check them out! :)

-A