1 Timothy 6:10 - Money Money Money..

We all need money to survive; it’s a given fact. The world expects to be paid for services rendered and expects riches to enjoy themselves. I for one couldn’t get to work without money, I couldn’t see people I love and I really couldn’t survive without food or drink.

But, I ask of you, do you need money to have a good time? Do you need money to enjoy life? Most importantly, do you need money to be close to God? Unsurprisingly, the answer to all of the questions is, no.

Right, get real Mike, if we don’t need money to do all of these things, then why do you get up and go to work everyday and why is it you still have to have money to pay for things. Well, you’re right, however, the way in which I use my money isn’t for personal gain, and isn’t to make myself feel better.

The text I’m going to draw from is as follows;

1 Timothy 6:10 (New International Version)

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

I think its important to point out right from the start, Money is not evil. It is the love of money that is evil. Again, I’m going to look at this in 3 parts, and view this subject as a relationship, and how the world expects relationships to happen – Stage 1, Falling in Love, Stage 2, Marriage, and Stage 3 Divorce.

Stage 1 – Falling in Love.

I’m sure you know what this feeling is like. When you share with somebody everything and when all you want to do is spend time with this person. The love of money can also happen along these lines. When I started working in 2001, this was when I first fell in love with money.

My pay cheque would arrive on my desk telling me that my bank account had been replenished with funds every month. The first few months of this happening, something strange happened to me. I would go out and spend the lot, not even thinking about the implications, nor, thinking about the consequences. I was falling in love with having what I wanted, when I wanted and at any cost.

I managed to get myself into debt pretty quickly with that attitude in mind. I wanted to spend as much time and money as I could wandering around the shops or in the pub because, I could.

One of my biggest inspirations when it came to money was a guy by the name of Peter Jones. (Dragons Den). He was young successful and could afford what he wanted, but that was where my love grew for money.

God says at the start of this passage, “For the Love of money is the root of all kinds of evil”. And ultimately, my falling in love with money did this. I used to get drunk, I used it to gratify my lusts and I used it to be selfish. At the time, I thought there was nothing wrong with this, but when you actually look at the situation through Christian eyes, you realize that because the pound signs blinded me, I let my eyes be deceived.

Stage 2 – The Marriage

Obviously, once you have loved someone for some time and you have realized that you do indeed want to spend the rest of your life with him or her, you get married. (Not strictly I know but generally from a Christian point of view this is the usual course).

When you get married to money, there is no ceremony, there are no gifts. Your marriage happened when you realize, there is no way out from its grip on you. When you realize, I can’t actually quit working because you’ve made your self get into debt and the only way out is by working to get more money. At this point you find yourself asking why have I let myself get into this position, but by now it’s too late.

In the passage it says, “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith”. This is what happened to me, and I’m sure it’s the same path that hundreds of Christians have walked before. The temptations of the world are too great for us to resist and the key to unlocking these things is money.

When you are in a marriage, God says that you are to be faithful, but money cannot be faithful to you because it won’t tell you what is right and wrong and it most certainly won’t tell you to stop spending. Banks are sending me leaflets every day telling me I can have credit cards, loans and all manner of money I would want. But ultimately, the relationship can break down and end in misery.

Stage 3 – The Divorce.

This is the stage when you hate money because you can’t get enough, the only reason you get up for work each day is to satisfy your thirst for having more money to pay off more debts and to have some left over to have fun with. Instead of you getting money, money gets you.

I’ve been in this situation and it’s not pretty. You begin to resent your Job because the only reason you can justify being there is to pay debts. Everything seems to be slowing down and everything is an effort. You don’t have any money to get drunk with, to buy things or to gratify yourself but you take it anyway and get yourself further and further into the red.

At this point. You feel helpless. And this is what the last part of the passage says – “and pierced themselves with many grief’s”. You see how the bible simplifies this, “Pierced THEMSELVES…” its not God’s doing if you love money and it turns its back on you. Its not God who allows you to get into debt, its your love for money.

Ultimately however, there is always a way out, whether that be when you hit rock bottom and the bank gives you more money and you structure your payment over a period of time, or you manage to work up enough money to pay it off. God also offers a way out for his debt.

Conclusion

What God is teaching in this passage is that money isn’t evil, money is a necessity, its something that helps when you have a bill, or when you need to eat. It is the LOVE of money that leads to your downfall. I still admire Peter Jones but I don't have the same love for money as I did have.

I have committed my life to God, I am a Christian and because of this, All that I own and all that I have is committed to given to him so that I can do his will. This includes money. I use the money I have to serve God. I use money to get to work so that I can work hard and witness to people around me with my actions, for God. I use my money to travel to see people, so that I can encourage and help them, and love them, for God. I use my money to pay off the debt from my old life so that I am free to serve God in another way, for God.

I do not love money. Money is there for God’s purposes and you can use your money to glorify him. As someone once said to me “you can’t take it with you”, that’s the truth but whilst I am here I can serve God with the money that I have.

Walk By Faith and not by sight.

Mikey.

Genesis 1 v 1 - The Beginning.

I take my text today from the beginning… right at the beginning – Genesis 1 v 1. I will also refer to other parts of the bible through the blog entry, but for the purposes of this particular Blog entry its apt that we look at the beginning.

“In the beginning, GOD created the heavens and the earth…” Genesis 1 v 1.

Firstly, welcome. My name is Mikey Nash and I am 21 from a little town called Birmingham in England. I have a burning desire to serve and be God’s servent and eventually to preach his name to the youth as a youth pastor. But for now, I work at a broker and I go to Monyhull Evangelical Church in Birmingham.

I feel I had to let you know a little bit about me so that you can understand the reasoning behind this Blog and why I love the Lord so much.

I’m going to break this first verse into 3 parts. Difficult I know, its only 10 words long but I think 3 key points come from this verse and from what its saying.

Part 1 – “In the Beginning…”

When we’re born, our lives begin. “Obviously, Mike you muppet” I hear you cry, but actually think about that for a second. Actually take a moment to take a step back from the phrase and look at it from a new angle. Being born makes our lives begin. We are wholey dependant on others to bring us into the world and when we’re very young we don’t even think or remember anything but we’re alive, we are breathing, we’re eating, and ultimately, we’re lost.

But this verse in Genesis is a little different, the Beginning Genesis talks about isn’t a superficial beginning like our first breath, for many millennia has already happened before we live. It may be ‘our’ beginning, but ultimately, it is more the middle (or end depending on what you read into revalation. I will touch upon that another time) of time. The beginning of the world is a “Godly” beginning, or to put it another way, a “devine” beginning.

“In the beginning”, in the beginning of everything, at the start of all things we know, at the birth of the world, however you want to put it. At this point, is the start of everything. Its difficult to conceve in our brains which are so used to time and space and other physical aspects that shape this world what was before “the beginning”, but for God who is not part of our time and is not govern by the physical aspects of this world, this age of “the world” is but a grain of sand on a beach. Therefore the beginning for God is not the beginning, it is only what he has created for his glory.

Part 2 – “In the Beginning, God”

Now we have the basis of the beginning and where it fits into our world, we have to also remember that in the beginning there was God. God has always been there from the start. When Steven Hawkins was analising the big bang and was looking at how the world was formed, the only thing that he could justify before the big bang was God.

For us Christians its very hard for us to imagine anything but God being there before the beginning but for non Christian folk, its even more difficult. I can remember speaking to someone who called himself an atheist about this very subject. I asked him what he thought had made the world. His answer was the Big Bang. I asked him further, what was around before the big bang and how old is the universe, he replied he didn’t know because there was nothing before the big bang but gas. Where did the gas come from was my next question. Silence followed and the answer came, I don’t know.

Our human minds cannot cope with anything outside of the physics of the world. We can’t comprehend the infinity of the universe, more over its creation soley for God to show his awesome power, and yet on this small planet some 22,000 miles around was where God created man. Actually think about that for a moment. The universe is massive. There are millions if not billions of stars spread out over an inifinate distance, each of those stars with its own planet system. But God chose this planet and us to send his son and for his son to die for us, for our sins. God is truly awesome.

Part 3 – “Created the heavens and the earth”

I’ve already touched upon this point, however it is worth driving home. God created us, God gave us this planet and designed everything about it. We can’t think about the smallest element in our world. But God knows each and every nano atom, at what makes an atom and he knows how it works and why.

There are some groups of Christians who think that science is against God, but actually, scientific research is only trying to find out what God already knows. There is something quite comforting about that for us really, that God already knows how many hairs we have on our heads, God already knows how many planets are out there and he already knows how it all works. The persuit of science is only the persuite of proving that God exists. Contreversal I know, but to me that’s the truth.

Its no coincidence that the world is a perfect tempreture, distance from the sun and size for humans and animals to survive. By God’s design that it is this way. Amazing really when you look out the window at the weather systems and how much detail there is in just a single leaf or even when we look out ourselves. We speak, we think, we breath, we can see. The chances of this happening by chance is an infinite number to 1, but for a Christian, its not.

Conclusion

Well there we have it, a little bit wishy washy I know but I hope that my words have gone someway to encourage you and to strengthen your own love and trust for God because, In the Beginning, there was God and God Created the heavens and the earth, for us. And because he created the world there is nothing that he cannot do within this world. I have seen this on many occasions and I thank God that he is watching me and caring about me.

Walk by Faith, Not by Sight.

Mikey