Jesus said that we should not be anxious about anything.  This includes money. 

But it is also important how we get money and what we do with it when we’ve got it!

First we looked at how somebody’s attitude to money changed when they met Jesus.  This is from Luke’s Gospel.  Luke was a Christian doctor who knew Peter, the disciple of Jesus.  He recorded events in the life of Jesus very carefully.  This event happened when Jesus was on his last journey to Jerusalem, where he would be betrayed, arrested and killed on the cross.

Read Luke 19:1-10 Zacchaeus the Tax Collector.  Think about what made him change so dramatically.

Read 1 Timothy 6:6-19.  Think about the consequences for your life if you love money too much. 

Here are some other thoughts about money from the Bible:-

•Pride in your wealth is stupid and dangerous!

•Debt is a kind of slavery.

•Both stealing and coveting are against the 10 Commandments.

•Injustice and idolatry are serious problems which the prophets often warn against.

•Keeping the Sabbath and tithing both honour God and help keep money in perspective.

•According to the Bible, we are stewards, not outright owners of the Earth or our possessions.

•Giving brings a double blessing – to the receiver and the giver.

•Giving does not earn salvation.  That is God’s free gift to us!

•Knowing how much God loves us gives us the security to let go of things.

•Knowing God loves us despite our faults helps us love others.

1. Good News for the world: Luke 2:1-20. 2000 years ago, in a small town, in the Roman Empire - there is great news, a saviour is born. God cares about us so much that he sent his Son, Jesus, to save us.
2. Good News for sinners: Mark 2:13-17. Jesus has just healed a paralysed person, but before he healed him he forgave his sins. Then Jesus goes and has a meal with people who are considered to be sinners, including some tax collectors (at that time tax collectors were often unfair in their dealings). The religious leaders don't think it is right for Jesus to eat with these "dodgy" people. But Jesus is quite clear; he says that it is the sick who need a doctor - he has come to to help the sinners, not those who think they have got everything right. The good news is that if we realise we are sinners and need help, then Jesus came to help us.
3. Good News about evil: Mark 9:21-29. Jesus comes into a crowd who are arguing because the disciples were unable to remove an evil spirit from a young boy. Jesus commands the evil spirit to leave, and it does. The good news is that Jesus has authority over evil, and we see elsewhere in Mark's gospel that Jesus has authority to heal from illness as well. In the story Jesus says something important; he says "everything is possible for him who believes". To experience the authority of Jesus in our lives we must believe.
4. Good News about life: John 10:1-21. Jesus tells a story about a shepherd and his sheep to a crowd of people who have mixed views about who Jesus is. In the story Jesus explains that a shepherd cares for his sheep (unlike someone who is hired), and the sheep recognise the voice of their shepherd. In his story Jesus goes a step further and says the shepherd is willing to lay down his life (to die) for the sheep. Jesus is the good shepherd and he will lay down his life for his sheep (his sheep are those who recognise his voice, or in other words those (people) who listen to him).
5. Why did Jesus die? Luke 23:13-56. This passage tells the story of Jesus' death. Jesus was sentenced to death unfairly; even the rulers said he was innocent but they gave into the the demands of people in order to stay popular. He was then crucified with criminals, and yet he asks for forgiveness for the executioners. The rulers, soldiers and other criminals mock him saying "If you are the king of the Jews then save yourself". As Jesus is dying on the cross darkness comes over the land and the curtain of the temple is torn in two (this is symbolic as the curtain separating God from the people is now torn - there is a way through to God directly). And after his death a Roman centurion praises God and the people go away distressed. Something more was happening - Jesus was there to save the world.

What is the Point of Life?

Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26, 12:13-14

If we look at a speck of dust it is tiny compared with the city of Southampton.  But you or I are even smaller compared with the universe.  That can make us feel insignificant and meaningless.  But are we?

Someone has said “There are two significant moments in every person’s life: the day you are born and the day you discover why you were born”.

How would you complete the sentence.. “My purpose in life is…"?

King Solomon lived 900 years before Christ.  He was rich, powerful and considered the wisest man on earth.  In Ecclesiastes he describes his search for meaning and purpose in life.  He pursued all kinds of pleasure, he accumulated possessions, he made his surroundings beautiful, he studied and he worked hard.  But he still wondered if there was any point to all this.  He would die anyway.  What would happen to it all when he died?  Was he any better off than a foolish person?

Today, like Solomon, we can enjoy our work and we can enjoy achieving success.  But all this will pass.  It can be just like enjoying playing a game.  We like to win, but does it really matter once the game is over?

Solomon concludes that it does make a difference if we acknowledge God.  That is the beginning of true wisdom.

It does make a difference that:

•     There is a God who made us and God watches us and God will judge us

•     God wants us to be aware of him and to relate to him in thankfulness and obedience

•     God has made rules for us to live by for our good.

If we look at the whole message of the Bible, we see that it makes even more difference when we realise...

•      God loves us, and wants us to love him and to be in a relationship with him forever!

•      This speck of dust is of inestimable value to God.

•      God created me knowing that it would cause him great suffering to bring me into a right relationship of love with  himself.

•      God still will not force me to respond, but longs for a freely chosen relationship of love of creature to creator.

•      Beyond the philosophical questions of Ecclesiastes, we can read in the Gospels of how Jesus demonstrates how important my life and your life is to God.

God’s Promises: We read two passages in Deuteronomy, chapters 5:1-21 and 6:1-9.

• The passages tell us about 10 rules or laws God set down for His people to follow.
• When I read this what struck me was what this shows us about God. He came to His people to give them these laws directly - this is pretty amazing. We read that He spoke directly to them; He would only do this for them if He loved them.
• What's more, we read in the rules that He is jealous when His people go after other things instead of Him. It helps to think of God as a parent, giving good rules to His children, and imagine how that parent would feel if their child ignored them and went after something or someone else.
• In fact, the first four rules are about honouring God. This is therefore very important. There is then one about honouring your own father and mother and the remaining five are: Don't murder, Don't commit adultery, Don't steal, Don't lie and Don't envy things. [It's helpful to consider the first four as being about our vertical relationship with God, and the next six being about our horizontal relationships with those around us - honouring our father and mother are first in the horizontal list and the most important in those horizontal relationships.]
• We might think that these rules are fairly easy to follow, but we need to remember that God is totally pure, and so His standard is much higher than that of the rest of society. For example, God considers hate as breaking the rule "Do not murder!"
• So it turns out that we have all fallen short of these laws by God’s standards. How then can we keep them? In Chapter 6 we read that we must love God with all our heart and soul  and strength. The truth is that to follow these rules it must come from our heart and not from our head.
• This is what Jesus offers. When we believe in Him and turn to follow Him He gives a life change through His Spirit coming into our lives and causing our hearts to desire to live God’s way.

The question I will leave you with is: how do you think rules can travel from our head to our heart?

by Andy Gray

We started the course by looking at the topic of The God who is near. We looked at chapter 139, in the book of Psalms. This is really a poem or song that King David wrote about 3000 years ago. David was a famous king of the Jewish nation, and although he started his working life as a Shepherd, through trusting God ended up being appointed king. As king he had a lot of power and despite his earlier trust in God he disobeyed the law of God. It is recorded that he had an affair with a married woman and then arranged for her husband to die in battle. It's worth bearing this in mind as you read the passage. Here is a summary of it:

Through the first part of the passage David says God is beyond anything we can imagine, He is:

- Beyond limits; He can see into the lives of every individual, seeing what we say and do, even what we think!

- Beyond space; wherever we go He is there, and ready to stand by us

- Beyond light and darkness; He can see in darkness as if it is light

- Beyond life; He creates life

- Beyond time; God sees what we will be, and do, before we are even born

These really are things that are beyond what we can really understand or imagine. So how do we respond? There are two responses in the passage:

1. The first response we see is people who are against God. When you look through all the things God is like it can seem to be 'too much,' so many people don't want to know, and end up being against God.

2. The second response is David's response. David says to God, "Search me, Oh God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." David invites God into his heart, to lead him in the way to life forever. Despite David disobeying the law before, he now comes to God and asks him to lead him in the right way. So the second response is to love and praise God for all his amazingness, inviting Him into your life.

When David wrote this he could not really have known how it would be possible for the disobedience he had committed to be forgiven so that he could have a relationship with God, because this was before Jesus came. But we know that Jesus came to die and so take the punishment, for the disobedience of all who would accept the offer of forgiveness and turn back to God just as David does here.

by Andy Gray