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.

Biblical Sarcasm

It has been said that:

Sarcasm is the lowest form of humor

But if it is good enough for God, it is good enough for me! Where does God use sarcasm I hear you ask? Probably the bible. One instance is in Job 38. I read it the other day, in particular note verse 21 in which God is quoted as saying:

Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!

As I said, if it's good enough for the almighty, it's good enough for me!

Political Judgement

According to this article (Heat on PM to cut link to pastor) Tony Abbott has made the call that the Labor party does not have "the degree of Christian commitment" that the Coalition has. So by inference "if you consider yourself a Christian you should vote liberal". I wonder if Mr. Abbott & other 'Chrisitan' pollies have read Matthew 7:

1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

3"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

I think I'm capable of deciding on my own which party best represents my Christian beliefs. This should be obvious anyway because of fath & deeds etc. (James 2:17)

Say what?

Three Sundays ago, I arrived back here at Res after church, I'd just walked into my room and 1 of the girls advised me "I wouldn't go into the bathroom if I was you." A little unsure exactly what this meant, I said "Can I ask why?" For all I knew there could of been girls in there doing girly stuff that I don't want to know about. (See Upstairs Living #1 for further info). I was informed that people were in there doing a séance.

The next morning this was confirmed, as the table & shot-glass were still in there. I'm not really sure why they hijacked our bathroom to do it, apparently it needs to be dark & quiet or something. I wasn't really sure what to make of a séance happening just through the wall from me. I'd heard forever that they are bad & I'd always believed it. But it occurred to me that this was all 2nd hand information. What did the bible say about "séancing"?

So I did a couple of Google searches. Looking for articles/ commentary on the subject. After a couple of "it's bad because it's evil" justifications without any reasoning I came across "What does the Bible say about channeling?" on GotQuestions.com. There is a record of a seance in the bible. Not surprised? Well I was.

1 Samuel 28 is where you will find it.

1 Chronicles 10:13-14 is where Saul dies, in-part because of the séance.

So it seems to me that while seances are sometimes real, and not always fake as I'd suspected. They should not be practiced because it is turning to someone/ something other than the Holy & all-knowing God for guidance.

But read the article, all I'm doing is regurgitating what it says.

Reading

I've come to the conclusion that I need to read more. Yes the Bible, but also books about other stuff as well. There's lots of stuff I'd like to understand, reading is about the only way I can do it.