God & Money

In my church small group I've started leading a series on 'Money'. I find that talk about money is all around us, I hear about it constantly at work and the media and I've also done a lot of reading about our economy & how money works in our society. So being aware of all this information, I wasn't sure what a biblical take on all this was. So I agreed to lead the study in an attempt to gain some scriptural perspective to all of this.

Some of the things we covered in our first study were:

1. What is God's ongoing relation to his creation?

Psalm 24 ^"1 The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;"
Psalm 50:9-12 - God has no need for our own riches. He created them and they're his.
Psalm 104:24-30 - When God gives, his people & his creation is satisfied. But when he hides his face, Gods people and his creation are fear full, regardless of their wealth or surroundings.

2. How does money fit into this?

Haggai 2:8 - Our wealth is Gods!
Job 41:11 - God owes us nothing!

3. What is mankind's relation to creation, under God? What are our duties and privileges?

Gen 1: 26-28 - Mankind has dominion and rule over all the earth and all living creatures. Man is instructed to 'fill the earth and subdue it.'

Gen 2:15 - 'Work the garden & take care of it'. Work was always going to be apart of our life, even before the fall. We have a duty to work & take care of Gods creation.

4. How should we regard the things in Gods world? Including Money?

1 Timothy 4:3-5 - Everything God created is good, including money/ wealth. But it needs to be received with thanksgiving!

1 Timothy 6:17 - We need to put our hope in God and not in unstable and uncertain wealth. (Which was uncertain even in biblical times! The GFC is hardly a new problem. ) Our wealth that we do have is provided by God as a gift for our enjoyment! This is much more positive than what we (non-prosperity) Christians are usually told about money.

It was all very interesting. I've already learnt lots about this topic I didn't realise before. Posting all this makes me seem very 'Christian'. Much more Christian than I feel anyway. Whatever.