Myths about Money: Part Deux

Myth 2: “Money isn’t a problem for me (I don’t have any yet)”

The danger is not always in having money… the problem is in our attitude towards money. Let me ask a few diagnostic questions to determine if money might be a problem for you.

• When you last bought a new car, IPod, computer game or clothes did you consider whether this was how God wanted you to spend your money?

• When was the last time you gave something away that really cost you, rather than giving safely from what you have?

• Are you more excited when you visit the temple of Victoria Square (or equivalent) & rejoice at the bargains on offer or meeting with God’s people for Sunday morning worship?

• Have you ever spent £100 or more on clothes, a concert, sports event or a holiday without much thought, but considered yourself really generous & sacrificial by giving £20 to church?

• Have you ever said something along the lines of, “I don’t have any clothes, shoes or handbags”?

• When you ask someone what they do for a living do you find yourself contemplating how much they earn?

• Have you ever bought someone a present/gift with an expectation of repayment of some sort? Have you ever complained that someone else’s present to you wasn’t as expensive or nice as yours to them?

• Have you ever found yourself working on a Sunday to earn money or turning down a mission opportunity for a summer job?

• When considering how wealthy you are do you compare yourself with celebrities, with friends who have more than you or with people in the developing world?

• Have you spent more time thinking about what you will buy people for Christmas or the significance of celebrating Jesus’ birthday?

Personally I find these issues very challenging as they expose several fears & insecurities that I have about money & stuff. But if we are to live for the Kingdom and not the Thing-dom, I think it is important (if uncomfortable) to take some time to meditate on one or all of these issues.

So is money a struggle for you?

“Two things I ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD?'
Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.” Proverbs 30v7-9

(Myth 3: Christians should not have lots of money)

Myths about Money

Myths about Money

We had an interesting post-Bible study discussion in our Young Adults group last night about money – and in particular giving & tithing. So I thought I’d fire out a few blog posts over the next week with the hope of sparking chat, thought, debate & a search for God’s truth.

First… let's start with some commonly accepted myths about money.

Myth 1: Money is neutral and depersonalised
Our survey says “eh-eh.” If money was neutral we wouldn’t give status to people who had it or ever be tempted to covet our friend’s salary, car or house. If money was neutral it wouldn’t be possible to be embarrassed about what type of mobile phone you own or what clothes you wear.

Jesus teaching on the matter is simple and hard-hitting (Matthew 6:19-24).

• Money is a power with a life of its own; it must be taken seriously.
• He uses the word “Mammon” which is translated Money (note it has a capital “M”) and by doing this Jesus gives it a personal and spiritual character – it’s a rival god!
• It is a power seeking to dominate us… it is a force capable of inspiring devotion… it is seductive and can win your heart.
• And like all demons… it wants us to deny its existence.

The love of stuff is a real threat to our relationship with God… here are a sample of Jesus warnings.

“Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.” Luke 6:24

“No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God & Money.” Luke 16:13

“Be on guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Luke 12:15

God is not neutral or quiet on money... it is dangerous... it seeks to control you... it wants to make you its servant. His teaching is very clear and challenging and I often find myself tempted to tone it down because it makes me feel uncomfortable.

It is not difficult to understand what the Bible has to say about money… but it is difficult, challenging & scary to live out. Jesus’ counter-cultural words not only fly in the face of everything society, family, friends & even the church at times teach us, but also challenge our privileged status in the world.

(Tomorrow… Myth 2: Money isn’t a problem for me -I don’t have any yet)

Cleaning up the Crap

It's not unusual for me to be woken up around 1am by a screaming child; unfortunately last night's episode even more gruesome.


I lifted Jacob to discover not only was he crying for some milk/attention, but that he had inconveniently sprayed himself from head to toe in poo. A nasty dosh of the squirts - that even metal plated nappies could not contain - left me with a baby who wreaked of a death & a stomach curdling with nausea.


So I put him down and shouted, "Get yourself cleaned up you filthy little creature. How dare you cover yourself in this horribleness. You repulse me. Get out of my sight until you are washed, cleaned & sorted out. I don't want to know you until then."
















Ok, before you contact social service this is clearly not what happened. I hate poo & I love my son. I changed his soiled clothes, washed him in the bath & comforted him in my arms until his distress left & he fell asleep again.

But which of these father images do you hold of God? If you take a honest moment of reflection, who do you see?


Our God has revealed Himself to us as a perfect, loving, Heavenly Father desperately desiring relationship & intimacy with us. Longing to clean up our dirtiness, our uncleanliness, our sin through faith in Jesus. Taking delight in lighting us from our helpless states, rebuilding a broken relationship with Him and comforting us in our distress.

Many factors in our personal lives & faulty understandings of the Person of God may cause us to hold an other image. But these are wrong.


If this is an area of confusion, why not take some time to read through the Gospel of Mathew, Mark, Luke or John & see our God through the eyes of Jesus?

Or why not pause for a moment & praise Father God for being a loving, perfect Daddy willing to clean us up & hold us in His arms again?

A scary, but safe prayer...

Psalm 139 fires off with some pretty strong words that have be swishing around in my consciousness since our Young Adult group studied them last week...

"You have looked deep into my heart, Lord, and you know all about me..."

All about me... all about my resting, my working, my family life... all my thoughts, the holy ones & the stinkers .... all my words before they're even on my tongue, the hurtful ones & those that encourage.

As Christians we often nod in agreement to this theology, but fail to follow it up with the invitation of the final verses in this Psalm. Not because we think too much of ourselves, but because we think too little. How difficult it is to pray these words sincerely... "Look deep into my heart, God, and find out everything I am thinking. Don't let me follow evil ways, but lead me in the way that time has proven true."

Through this prayer God invites us to look, reflect, listen, see & experience what is happening in our daily lives & sense the footprints of the Divine.

I invite you to practice this now, but ensure that you do it with God, not alone. I believe that deep down we all struggle with self-acceptance & seeing our true selves with the blinkers off, so to self-examine without Him is to end up excessively praising or blaming ourselves... on one hand is justification, rationalisation & evasion of responsibility, on the other is self-flagellation, merciless self-beating & unnecessary guilt.

If it helps write your discoveries in a journal, and let the external events of your life be the springboard for a deeper understanding of God in your heart.

And once you have let the Lord of grace examine you, why not offer yourself as a "living sacrifice" to Him once more (Romans 12:1)... offer yourself just as you are (warts & all), not what you want to be.

"Precious Saviour, why do I fear your scrutiny? Yours is an examen of love. Still, I am afraid... afraid of what might surface. Even so, I invite You to search me to the depths so that I may know myself - and you - in fuller measure." Richard Foster, "Prayer"

Ah grow up: some jumbled thoughts on Christian maturity

"Grow up instead of just getting bigger." "Act your age & not your shoe size."

I'm sure we can all remember similar words spoken to us at some stage in our past or present. These rebukes are sometimes justified & sometimes incorrect, but are often delivered in some form of condescending or self-righteous manner.

Put those negative connotations aside for one moment & consider the loving God whose desire for each of His children is that they move from childish to mature faith in Him, lived out in a godly lifestyle.

Ephesians 4 is a super passage which I encourage you to think about as it's highlights the role of the church (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers) in helping us all to make this transition from infantile ways to service, unity & maturity in Christ (v12-13).

The passage suggest various ways in which we can do this, so that we are no longer tossed around in the wind by any sort of teaching that comes our way, but rather learn to speak the truth in love & "in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ." (v15).

So if Christian maturity is the goal for us all, what does this look like? Below are a few thoughts... thrown together.

Childish Faith: "Good Christians don't have pain or disappointment."

Mature Adult Faith: "God uses our pain & disappointment to make us better Christians."

Childish Faith: "God wants to make us happy."

Mature Adult Faith: "God wants to make us holy (into the image of Jesus)"

Childish Faith: "Faith will help us explain what God is doing (things always work out)"

Mature Adult Faith: "Faith helps us to stand under God's sovereignty even when we have no idea what God is doing."

Childish Faith: "The closer to God we get, the more perfect we become."

Mature Adult Faith: "The closer we get to God, the more aware we become of our sinfulness."

Childish Faith: "Mature Christians have all the answers"

Mature Adult Faith: "Mature Christians can wrestle honestly with tough questions because they trust that God has the answers."

Childish Faith: "We go to church because our friends are there, we have great leaders & we get something out of it."

Mature Adult Faith: "We go to church because we belong to the body of Christ."

Attitudes of spiritual maturity are developed as God's people move out of the comfortable bubble of the church programme and live out their faith through the challenging (and often monotonous) experiences of daily life in the real world.

When we reach maturity we no longer depend on bells & whistles or a certain of worship music or other people to motivate us to live out our faith. Rather than having a reactive faith (always putting the responsibility for our spiritual growth on someone else shoulders) we become proactive (taking prayerful action to ensure that we are living as God intends).

Sometimes we mistakenly believe that growing up in our faith will make us perfect. I found a great quote in my Bible reading notes to counter that false belief.

"Maturity is not the place where we stop growing because all our problems are solved - it is the place where we have learned to grow more freely. To be perfect is to be without fault. To be mature is to have the ability and willingness to deal with the faults that remain. The Church will never be made up of perfect people; but it can be a body built up of those who are mature." Encounter with God (a Scripture Union resource)

Christian Maturity

I found this interesting little section in my Bible reading notes this morning...

"...maturity is not the place where we stop growing because all our problems are solved - it is the place where we have learned to grow more freely.

To be perfect is to be without fault. To be mature is to have the ability and willingness to deal with the faults that remain. The Church will never be made up of perfect people: but it can be a body built up of those who are mature." Encounter with God (Scripture Union)

This thought was derived from this powerful passage in Ephesians. The role of church leadership is "... to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."

Ephesians 4:12-16 (emphasis added)

So according to this passage - how mature are you? And how mature is your church?

Demolished Walls

I'm just about old enough to remember the fall of the Berlin Wall & the media frenzy which it sparked.

How exciting to see the celebrations in Germany yesterday as this historic event of two decades ago was remembered. Not only did it lead Germany to reunify, but it marked the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Cold War's end. The symbolic act was to reflect how the then Communist governments of Eastern Europe fell one after another.

Mr Obama gave a great speech, but I'll pull him up on this one phrase...
"There could be no clearer rebuke of tyranny. There could be no stronger affirmation of freedom," he said of the wall's tearing down.

My minister reminded me last week that there is in fact another demolished wall which greater symbolises the rebuke of tyranny & is a much stronger affirmation of freedom. You can read about it below...

Ephesians 2:13-22 (The Message)

Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.

The Messiah has made things up between us so that we're now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.

Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.