Money As God - Part 1

This is a summary of the things we covered in Week 2 of our study on 'God & Money':

1. What alternatives are discussed in these verses?
Matthew 6:19-24 - There are only 2 alternatives given in these verses, there doesn't seem to be any 'middle ground'. These are:

• Serving God Vs Serving Money
• Treasures on earth Vs Treasures in Heaven

2. What does it mean to 'serve money'?
We serve money by seeking it instead of God, in this way it becomes a form of idolatry.

Romans 1:21-25
3. What ought we be spurred to do as we regard God's good creation?

• Glorify God.
• Give thanks to God.
• Worship & Serve God.

4. What do we tend to do instead?

• Our thinking becomes futile.
• Our hearts become dark.
• We exchange the truth for a lie.
• We worship & serve created things.

5. We then looked at some of the dangers of money:

• Becomming proud & as a result forgetting God. (Deut 8:6-18)
  
• Worries of this life & wealth can choke the word of God out of our lives. (Matt 13:18-23)
• It causes us unnecessary worry! (Luke 12:16-31)

6. Some attitudes towards money that we should avoid:

• Becomming proud. (Deut 8:6-18)
• Thinking that we gained our wealth by our own strength and effort. (Deut 8:6-18)
• Being overawed or jealous of those that are rich. (Psalm 49:16-20)
• 'Setting our hearts on what we eat or drink. (Matt 13:18-23)

7. Godly attitudes we should adopt

• Remembering that it is God who gives you the ability to produce wealth. (Deut 8:6-18)
• Hearing Gods word & understanding it. (Matt 13:18-23)
• Seeking God & his kingdom! (Luke 12:16-31)

That was all from last week. There is alot that we've covered so far and a lot more that we're going to cover.

God & Money & Blogs

By pure coincidence last week I came across a blog written by a Christian that looks at the issues of God & Money and the way they relate. As I'm leading a study on money at the moment I found it very cool. If you're interested in the topic as I am, check it out:

Debt Free Adventure - http://www.debtfreeadventure.com/

From the about page:

For all intents and purposes… I am a modern day freedom fighter. In our modern era, the biggest threat to true individual independence… is personal consumer debt. I aim to stand in the gap and fight that debt – at all costs.

I am 33 years old. I live in Lansing, MI. I work as an Information Technology Manager by day, and moonlight as a personal finance guru and professional blogger. I am a Christian first, a husband second, a son and brother third, and a friend and colleague forth.

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.

Tech Support: The Secret is out!

To all my family and non technical friends. This is how I did it. This is the sole reason I know more about computers than you. XKCD has put the secret out for you all to see:

Tech Support Cheat Sheet:

Freedom of Speech?

I blogged the other day about 'Free Speech' and how awesome it is. It it truly wonderfull. Think where we'd be without it.

But really, how free is our speech? Do we really feel as though we have the ability to articulate our opinions? I know there have been occasions when I haven't blogged about issues because I wonder, 'what will my work colleagues think about that?' As a result I'm in the bizarre situation of not posting on my own personal blog because I'm scared of what other people might be thinking. Which on one hand is ridiculous. If I'm confident in my own opinion and as free as the media tells me I am, I should be free to express myself. But on the other hand this is just common sense. I shouldn't blog anything that I wouldn't happily distribute in public.

I'm also a Christian, and many times in Christian circles I haven't spoken my true thoughts because I may be seen as some kind of un-godly heretic. Here, I'm in the situation where because of Jesus I'm 'free indeed'. Unless I want to express that freedom.

I got thinking about this while reading about an application that manages Facebook & Twitter. The speak of a 'personal brand' is strange to me. As though I'm some sort of product wanting to market myself. Yet, that is exactly why I don't always speak my mind at church, or work or with family or anywhere. Because of some personal fear or want of career advancement or some other personal agenda.

We all say we are free, yet we are all entrapped by our own agendas and fears. This is not the sort of person I want to be. I want to be honest, but not in an 'in your face' way. Gaining the courage to be authentic will take time.

Jumping on the Bandwagon

On the weekend I jumped on the bandwagon and joined twitter. Unfortunately, some twit had registered the names 'jonathandyer', 'jdyer' & 'jonnyd' and never posted a tweet on any of them. So I've got the name dyerjonathan. Still not too bad.

After I linked it up, I was able to add the twitter widget to blogger. On the right. (RSSers you'll have to imagine it.) I then added the Twitter widget to Facebook, so my status updates are always added to both. Finally, I added my feed to twitterfeed. So now, whenever I update my blog, all my Facebook & Twitter contacts can see it. Pretty cool.

The only thing missing is followers. So if you're on Twitter, follow me. Or leave me a comment here so I can follow you!

For the next Internet craze, I'm hoping to be a bit earlier to the plate. After being so late with Facebook & Twitter.